Jiří Valoch - kurátor, teoretik, sběratel, Léta 1965-1980 – Musilová Helena (2021)

The best books are those that their author writes with commitment, energy, understanding, and admiration for the subject of their writing. This is the case with Helena Musilová, who fulfilled this task in her publication about Jiří Valoch to a remarkable degree. Jiří Valoch (1946) has played, and in a way still plays, a key role in the artistic scene of Central and Eastern Europe since the mid-60s, that is, from the beginning of all his activities. In addition to his own visual art, he has organized hundreds of exhibitions, written dozens of scholarly texts on the most current artistic practices and thoughts related to conceptual art or works that engage with the language of geometry. He facilitated, at a time when information, especially between the East and the West, was limited, the connection of artists not only from Central Europe but literally from around the world. This publication reports on his wide-ranging influence and extensive activities in this field of art for the very first time. No one has yet explored archival sources, personal archives of colleagues and friends, spoken with so many witnesses, and mapped the astonishing number of events, contacts, letters, works, and memorials to them, as the author has done. Last but not least, Helena Musilová also spoke with the creator himself and with the authors with whom...